Welcome to empatheias' test drive meme. This test drive is to help interested players test their characters in the game's environment. We've included a few prompts that incorporate specific elements of the game, though you'll find all of them have a lot of leeway for players to get as creative as necessary. Before diving in, here are a few things we'd like to remind everyone about the game in general:

Date reminders.Reserves open Monday, April 24th and Applications (Canon | OC) open a week later on May 1st.

OC Reminder! Just a quick reminder that original characters are allowed. Those interested can also use the test drive. OCs do not need to be reserved.

Emotions are key! Empatheias' premise focuses on how anyone's emotions can affect their environment, be it big or small. While not every emotion will cause a reaction, significant ones definitely will. How much effect a character will have will ultimately be up to you, the player. Also, while we're giving a lot of leeway for the test drive, keep in mind that there will be some limits in the actual game.

Everyone has an amulet. All characters have a unique amulet that is specialized for them. It will contain all of their emotion drops and it serves as the network device. Remember, communication is telepathic. Otherwise, it works basically the same.

Assume the character is already in the game. Because "OMG WHERE AM I IS THIS REAL LIFE" threads aren't going to be very helpful in this test drive! Plus those are going to happen in-game, anyway. So to make things easier, just assume that they've been around at least a week or so. Still learning the ropes, but not a complete "first day" experience.

First or third person allowed. Your threads can be in either first or third, but we'd advise being flexible about it. Remember, these threads can also be used in your application for samples! Reminder: We only require one sample and it can be done in either format. We have also made a change to our sample requirements, so look over the Applications page!

Now with that out of the way, here are some prompts you guys can work from!

PROMPTS

• Prompt A: How about giving the emotions a try?

• Prompt B: Refer to the Task Board and choose a task your character may be interested in taking up. For this prompt, you could have your character ask for help, already be in the middle of the job, or react to it in some way. Perhaps they were an unfortunate victim or want to create a job countering an existing one. You could even have a prompt making a job request. Creating jobs for the purpose of the test drive is absolutely doable.

• Prompt C: How about giving the amulets a go? Start a telepathic conversation and see how it works. Remember, the amulets are sending out the owner's thoughts so might want to be careful about how the stream of consciousness goes...

• Prompt D: Elios’ land was a great place to hold this year’s festival, but it’s always best to leave a place as you found it. This is especially important for the surface, as there’s a lot of work put into trying to heal the different domains that span the land down below Verens. Anyone who volunteers for cleaning duty is getting paid, and vouchers to several of the cafes up in Verens as a reward! For anyone not interested in cleaning but interested in a new closing ceremony of sorts, they can instead attend a fireside dance that will be held for the next few nights at the site of the festival once things are tidied up.

Cleanup Ordeals. Not too much mess was left around luckily as most people who helped organize the Festival understand the importance of cleaning up the mess you make, but it looks like the tent areas have a lot left to clean up and take down. Removing flowers and string lights, packing up fabric and blankets, and generally picking up trash here and there left by festival goers is the main job. It’s a big job, and the festival organizers encourage anyone with special skills or dunamis practice to use whatever they have at their disposal to speed things along.

Fireside Dance.It’s a small, simple gathering done once the sun has gone down and the sky is dark. The fire is stoked hot, surrounded by worn black stones painted with Elios’ symbol in red and orange tones of paint. The dance is a quick one, requiring two circles, an inner and outer one. Partners on the outer circle travel the inner circle and wind up dancing with each person in turn. Luckily it’s pretty quick to learn and everyone spirits run warm to match flushed cheeks. At the end, each participant is asked to throw a small twig into the fire and express a moment of love or hate, in the pursuit of balance.

• Prompt E: During the festival this month there was a curious prize at one of the game booths. Some of the Elios plushes from the bobbing for ducks booth seem to not have been plushies at all! After a few days of having one in your possession, The plush will engulf in non spreading flames and burn completely out, revealing one small egg, white or black. Depending on your mood the past few days, the egg will either hatch a leathery or feathery winged creature. Hopefully you’ve been in a good mood! Luckily, the creatures are only around long enough to perform their duty before winking out of existence again.

Bad Egg. Negative emotions have lead to a sour and dark winged creature who is up to mischief. They will not listen to their “owner” and instead are quite often out to make things difficult for them. 3 misfortunes or specific instances of bad luck will happen over three days to their possessor while they run amok. A claw shaped trinket is left behind as a reminder to try and enjoy life and not get caught up in bad moods.

Good Egg. Positive emotions will lead to a happy, bright and angelic feather winged creature. They’re mischievous as well, but often in gentler ways, and sometimes try to play cupid for their owner. These playful creatures will grant 3 small wishes over three days for their owner, such as desires for better weather, tastier food or small trinkets. No wishing for a million sylvs here! Once it poofs out of existence in a puff of glitter it leaves behind a small pearl as a reminder to value the things they have and experiences they get that make live worth living.

• Prompt F: A small ring of Circus performers from Thesthai have traveled up to Verens and set up a tent out near lake Niras. It’s a small Circus performance, a prelude to something that might be bigger in the future. All performances are done by the Circus members themselves, from acrobatics and magic tricks, to displays of fearless daredevilry with the help of Verens steam-punk inspired vehicles. Overall it seems to be garnering a lot of attention, causing a several day repeat showing of the activities. Performancy plays a central role in some setups, and they seem to be the most popular...

Animal Experience.Enjoy the animal menagerie, all sorts of creatures are here. They’re all well taken care of, and seem to enjoy the food and pettings they’re getting from the attendees. Happy animals make for happy animal loving customers afterall! There IS one catch.. mischevious circus performers will cast performancy on those who aren't paying enough attention to their surroundings, and circus goers in the menagerie area may find something new if they look in a mirror. Animal ears and tails and a host of other features! Don’t worry. It’s temporary and all in good fun.

Carnival Games. Carnival type games have been set up outside the main tent, including a lot of familiar games that may have been seen during the Zephyras Flower Festival. Ring Toss, water laser races, darts, and the good old fashioned strong arm competition are all part of the setup. The prizes here range from simple small toys to bigger 4 foot tall plushies. Careful though, some of these setups might actually be rigged. The house has to have an advantage, in the end. Where would they make their money?

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include geese and/or potatoes.

For your threads, put the Character Name and the Canon in the subject line to help readily identify them. You're also welcome to use more than one prompt for respondents to choose from. If you have any questions or want to brush up on the game information, refer to the Game Information entry. Otherwise, tag around and have fun!

d

You knew this was a clean up job, so why did you come here in the first place?

[ Red is helping, if he hasn't exactly been looking to work in the same space as Green finds the best to lounge around in like an utter weirdo, but he isn't exactly out of sight, and maybe Red just really needs to come over eventually and ask this question because come on.

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[Being on this island means all the levels of extreme smug Green is feeling is even more obnoxiously obvious, and surprise surprise, Red is a good source for Green to build up on that. Green glances around, taking in all the chores that have yet to be done.] I didn't participate around here, so it's not my mess to clean up.

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[ Yeah, right. That's a waste of Green's time. He might be a jerk, but just coming to a place to watch people at work? That's not it, and Red folds his arms after a moment, a slight tip to his head. ]

More like you wanted to explore and couldn't handle it.

[ They were on the surface after all, not the island; it meant there was more to see and really take in about where they were, but outside of the grounds the festivities had taken place, the hate hits a person hard.

That makes more sense to him. Red isn't so smug when he takes the guess, but he definitely wants to see if he hit the mark. ]

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[So maybe the area's a little weird outside of where people are staying. Still doesn't mean anything!] What's the point of this place, anyway? There doesn't seem to be anything interesting around here.

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They used to hold celebrations here all the time--that's what I heard. The festival's dedicated to Elios these days, so that's why they moved it this year to his lands. It means a lot to the people from this world too -- they couldn't have done this before.

[ Being on the planet, walking around it, having a celebration outside a city. Not only that... ]

And if we're lucky, all the activity over the three days will help the land heal quicker. That's important too!

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He-! [That's the most Green can let out before what feels like an entire garden falls onto his head (a total exaggeration, but that's what it feels like, alright), forcing him off his feet in surprise and right onto his rear.

A couple seconds pass before he's scrambling to get the now-tangled flower chains off of him, and it takes even less time for the flowers to dry up and turn brittle. He probably didn't like that too much.]

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[ It's not like it wouldn't be good exercise to battle under the hate that's in the air and surroundings once they leave the safety of the city, but did Green actually know what he was getting into...? ]

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You know what's going on in this world, don't you? Empatheias is safe, but nearly everything down here is a mess after a big war. This place is fine, but just this. As soon as you step out too far...

[ They can't go the direction the teleporter is in. There's too many people actually working there and not being dweebs. But it doesn't take long to find the border between safety and tension, the grass giving way to a withering cracked land that expands out farther, camouflaged originally by all the decorations that had been put in place, the draping and flowers now set aside. There was no reason to come this way in the festivities, to really see how far the affected land went.

Even if they're not outside the festival grounds, something is amiss in the air, a heaviness, something off just by seeing the barren land... ]

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[ You just enjoy that nice chill right there--Red's walking out farther, looking around before stopping and then waving over Green. ]

Stand here! If you can stand here for two minutes without blowing up, I'll battle you.

[ "Here" being on that broken ground, which buddy, if you think that section is bad then enjoy the weight of something far too heavy on your shoulders. Is it the air itself for how much harder it seems to be to breathe? And there's an annoyance, a dislike, which probably isn't hard to figure out the source when your company is Red.

Who will be watching, and waiting to see what happens. Red knows how to dull the presence of the anger and the atmosphere, but he's been here for more than a year to learn to do so. But Green... ]

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[It certainly didn't feel this cold a few steps back. Green crosses his arms, but that doesn't do a thing to protect from the chill. The strangest part is that it doesn't seem like an actual climate kind of cold, but more like...something else. It must be all in his head.]

Just two minutes? Man, you must be nervous if you need to wait to battle me.

[This spot here? Sure. Green stomps on over, shoulders hunched and pressing his lips together hard. It's like there's something thick in the air too, and he's audibly breathing harder as the seconds pass. But it's just Red trying to mess with him, right?]

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Worried about what? [He's twisting his hands into his shirt now, knees shaking as though there's a massive weight bearing down on his back. It's stuffy, it's uncomfortable, but the worst part is Red just standing there like nothing's wrong.

Green doesn't even make a minute before he's stumbling forward, trying to put some distance between him and - whatever it is around here.] Whatever it is you're doing, knock it off already!

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[ --okay, that sure is enough. Red reaches out to him and pulls on one of those arms at the wrist, their contact bringing for Green--while not a complete release from his state--a lessened weight, an easier means to breathe, as if physically touching Red was like a breath of fresh air (????).

And he'll need that as Red proceeds to pull him quickly towards the ruins of Diateris, the festival grounds, a-- ] Then let's get back! [ --given while he starts tugging him along.

There may be some of that residue unnerving feeling once they reach the safe zone, but it's like night and day in comparison, the two spaces. how you feeling, buddy. ]